NMR-based metabolomic analysis for the evaluation of different treatments on two pistachio cultivars

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a sophisticated non destructive, multinuclear and multiparametric technique that has been widely employed over the last two decades to characterize plant systems. In fact, NMR spectroscopy is able to identify the low molecular weight metabolites yielding a "metabolic profile" of the biological system under analysis. Very recently, the application of multivariate statistical analysis to high-throughput detection methods, like NMR spectroscopy, led to a new discipline named metabolomics, that allows analysis of metabolic profiles in a quantitative way and the acquisition of complex information that cannot be drawn directly from the spectra. Metabolomic analysis is applied to discriminate populations and describe the time trajectories of biological samples on the basis of their peculiar metabolic features. In the present study, the metabolic profiles of two pistachio cultivars, namely 'Bianca' and 'Gloria' selection, have been characterized by NMR spectroscopy, and their evolutions have been followed over time and as a function of different treatments. Metabolomic analysis has proven effective in analyzing metabolic changes occurred in the pistachios over the ripening period, and to detect the influence of different treatments on a metabolic basis.